diff --git a/package/ipmitool/Config.in b/package/ipmitool/Config.in
index e9b5374ea0..1da0ace16f 100644
--- a/package/ipmitool/Config.in
+++ b/package/ipmitool/Config.in
@@ -23,4 +23,11 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_IPMITOOL_IPMIEVD
 	help
 	  IPMI event daemon for sending events to syslog
 
+config BR2_PACKAGE_IPMITOOL_IPMISHELL
+	bool "ipmishell"
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_NCURSES
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_READLINE
+	help
+	  IPMI shell interface
+
 endif
diff --git a/package/ipmitool/ipmitool.mk b/package/ipmitool/ipmitool.mk
index 60ef2f810f..a24658437b 100644
--- a/package/ipmitool/ipmitool.mk
+++ b/package/ipmitool/ipmitool.mk
@@ -20,8 +20,11 @@ else
 IPMITOOL_CONF_OPTS += --disable-intf-lanplus
 endif
 
-ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_READLINE),y)
-IPMITOOL_DEPENDENCIES += readline
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_IPMITOOL_IPMISHELL),y)
+IPMITOOL_DEPENDENCIES += ncurses readline
+IPMITOOL_CONF_OPTS += --enable-ipmishell
+else
+IPMITOOL_CONF_OPTS += --disable-ipmishell
 endif
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_IPMITOOL_IPMIEVD),)